Mike Loukides (original) (raw)

Mike Loukides

Mike Loukides is Vice President of Content Strategy for O'Reilly Media, Inc. He's edited many highly regarded books on technical subjects that don't involve Windows programming. He's particularly interested in programming languages, Unix and what passes for Unix these days, and system and network administration. Mike is the author of System Performance Tuning and a coauthor of Unix Power Tools and Ethics and Data Science. Most recently, he's been writing about data and artificial intelligence, ethics, the future of programming, and whatever else seems interesting. He's also a pianist, a ham radio operator, and a lover of birds. Mike can be reached on Twitter @mikeloukides and on LinkedIn.

Radar

Blown Away

November 12, 2024

It’s been an amazing month for AI. What happened?

November 5, 2024

Developments in Biology, Hardware, Security, and More

Henry Ford Does AI

October 15, 2024

What’s the right prompt?

The State of Security in 2024

October 8, 2024

It's About Training

October 1, 2024

Developments in Robotics, Quantum Computing, Web, and More

Preparing for AI

September 17, 2024

What you need to learn to partner with generative AI

The AI Blues

September 10, 2024

Is AI getting worse? Or are we getting pickier?

September 3, 2024

Developments in AI, Biology, Hardware, and More

Platform Engineering: The Next Step in Operations

August 20, 2024

Think Better

August 13, 2024

Don’t listen to oracles, AI or otherwise. Take responsibility for thinking.

August 6, 2024

Developments in Programming, Security, Web, and More

Software Architecture in an AI World

July 23, 2024

Navigating New Constraints, Requirements, and Capabilities

Programming, Fluency, and AI

July 9, 2024

Are you using AI as a crutch?

July 2, 2024

Developments in Biology, Hardware, Robotics, and More

Generative AI for Farming

June 18, 2024

Farmer.Chat answers questions about agriculture

Answers: Generative AI as Learning Tool

June 11, 2024

A look at what O’Reilly is building with AI

June 4, 2024

Developments in AI, Design, Programming, and More

Passwords and their Discontents

May 22, 2024

Passwords are a poor solution for authenticating users–but none of the alternatives are very good, either. So, what do I use?

Making Marketing More Effective with AI

May 14, 2024

Increased efficiency closes more deals.

May 7, 2024

Developments in Security, Web, Robotics, and More

Attacking Supply Chains at the Source

April 16, 2024

The xz Utils attack almost succeeded. Will we be as lucky next time?

Quality Assurance, Errors, and AI

April 9, 2024

Some Thoughts about Software Quality

April 2, 2024

Developments in AI, Post-quantum Computing, Things, and More

Vacuum Tubes and Transistors

March 12, 2024

What can AI learn from the age of vacuum tubes?

March 5, 2024

Developments in Biology, Energy, Virtual Reality, and More

Corporate Responsibility in the Age of AI

February 20, 2024

AI doesn’t change basic ethical principles. But the scale at which it operates introduces new problems.

google-review-Corporate Responsibility in the Age of AI

February 16, 2024

AI doesn’t change basic ethical principles. But the scale at which it operates introduces new problems.

The OpenAI Endgame

February 13, 2024

Thoughts about the outcome of the NYT versus OpenAI copyright lawsuit

February 6, 2024

Developments in AI, Programming, Web, and More

January 25, 2024

What O’Reilly Learning Platform Usage Tells Us About Where the Industry Is Headed

Can Language Models Replace Compilers?

January 9, 2024

Don’t get your hopes up

January 4, 2024

Developments in Security, Virtual Reality, Quantum Computing, and More

December 12, 2023

The RAG pattern makes it possible to track authors’ contributions to AI-generated work

December 5, 2023

Developments in AI, Security, Web, and More

Strawberry Fields Forever

November 30, 2023

We don’t need AI to destroy the world.

Generative AI in the Enterprise

November 28, 2023

Creativity Isn’t Just Remixing

November 14, 2023

Make It New

November 7, 2023

Developments in Networks, Biology, Robotics, and More

Questions for 2024

October 31, 2023

Model Collapse: An Experiment

October 24, 2023

What happens when AI is trained on its own output?

Prompting Isn’t The Most Important Skill

October 17, 2023

It’s about the will to learn

Automated Mentoring with ChatGPT

October 10, 2023

AI can help you learn—but it needs to do a better job

October 3, 2023

Developments in AI, Privacy, Quantum Computing, and More

The Real Problem with Software Development

September 12, 2023

It’s not writing code, it’s managing complexity

September 5, 2023

Developments in Hardware, Operations, Cryptocurrency, and More

The next generation of developer productivity

August 15, 2023

The ChatGPT Surge

August 8, 2023

Why did searches for ChatGPT decline sharply in June and July?

August 1, 2023

Developments in Programming, Web, Security, and More

Fearing the Wrong Thing

July 11, 2023

The only thing to fear is failing to make the transition to AI-assisted programming

July 5, 2023

Developments in AI, Security, Quantum Computing, and More

ChatGPT, Now with Plugins

June 13, 2023

Plugins can make ChatGPT more reliable, but you still have to be careful.

June 6, 2023

Developments in Data, Operations, Hardware, and More

Pause AI?

May 9, 2023

To prevent long-term harms, build systems that address current issues of justice and fairness.

May 2, 2023

Developments in Programming, Security, Web, and More

Real World Programming with ChatGPT

April 25, 2023

Writing Prompts Isn’t As Simple As It Looks

Not Forgotten

April 11, 2023

ChatGPT isn’t the only important trend in technology.

April 4, 2023

Developments in AI, Security, Programming, and More

What Are ChatGPT and Its Friends?

March 23, 2023

Opportunities, Costs, and Risks for Large Language Models

Getting the Right Answer from ChatGPT

March 14, 2023

How do you know that ChatGPT isn’t lying?

March 7, 2023

Developments in Quantum Computing, Biology, Hardware, and More

March 1, 2023

What O'Reilly Learning Platform Usage Tells Us About Where the Industry Is Headed

Sydney and the Bard

February 16, 2023

What hath Microsoft and Google wrought?

AI Hallucinations: A Provocation

February 14, 2023

Do AI hallucinations foreshadow artificial creativity?

February 7, 2023

Developments in Data, Programming, Security, and More

Digesting 2022

January 10, 2023

January 4, 2023

Developments in AI, Biology, Regulation, and More

December 13, 2022

Not much.

December 6, 2022

Developments in Security, Cryptocurrency, Web, and More

Technical Health Isn’t Optional

November 22, 2022

Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific Region

Healthy Data

November 15, 2022

What does it mean to use data in a healthy way?

Formal Informal Languages

November 8, 2022

Do language models need to deliver reproducible results?

November 1, 2022

Developments in AI, Programming, Quantum Computing, and More

The Collaborative Metaverse

October 12, 2022

The enterprise metaverse is about better collaboration, not virtual meetings.

What Is Hyperautomation?

October 11, 2022

Hyperautomation may only be a buzzword, but automating business systems with AI is an important trend.

October 4, 2022

Developments in Machine Learning, Metaverse, Web3, and More

The Problem with Intelligence

September 13, 2022

Why are we talking about AGI when we can’t define “intelligence” adequately?

September 6, 2022

Developments in AI, Privacy, Biology, and More

On Technique

August 9, 2022

How might Copilot’s descendants change the craft of programming?

August 2, 2022

Developments in Security, Quantum Computing, Energy, and More

Artificial Creativity?

July 12, 2022

Models like DALL-E dissociate ideation from implementation. Do we care?

July 5, 2022

Developments in AI, Metaverse, Programming, and More

2022 Cloud Salary Survey

June 22, 2022

Trends for Compensation, Remote Work, Training, and More

“Sentience” is the Wrong Question

June 21, 2022

We need to be talking about access

Closer to AGI?

June 7, 2022

And is artificial general intelligence what we really need?

June 1, 2022

Developments in Programming, Metaverse, Hardware, and More

Quantum Computing without the Hype

May 10, 2022

May 3, 2022

Developments in Web3, Security, Biology, and More

The General Purpose Pendulum

April 12, 2022

Are we swinging away from general-purpose CPUs?

April 5, 2022

Developments in Programming, Biology, Hardware, and More

AI Adoption in the Enterprise 2022

March 31, 2022

Epstein Barr and the Cause of Cause

March 8, 2022

If a cause rarely causes something, is it a cause?

March 1, 2022

Developments in AI, Blockchain, Education, and More

Intelligence and Comprehension

February 15, 2022

What does it mean to say a computer model “understands”?

The Human Web

February 8, 2022

Web3 needs to solve the problems of Web0

February 1, 2022

Developments in Web, Metaverse, Infrastructure, and More

January 25, 2022

What O'Reilly Learning Platform Usage Tells Us About Where the Industry Is Headed

What Is Causal Inference?

January 18, 2022

An Introduction for Data Scientists

What’s ahead for AI, VR, NFTs, and more?

January 11, 2022

Here are some predictions for tech in 2022.

January 4, 2022

Developments in AI, IoT, Programming, and More

The Cloud in 2021: Adoption Continues

December 7, 2021

December 1, 2021

Developments in Programming, Quantum Computing, Cryptocurrency, and More

November 2, 2021

Developments in AI, Security, Quantum Computing, and More

The Quality of Auto-Generated Code

October 12, 2021

When Copilot writes your code, will you care whether it’s good or bad?

October 5, 2021

Developments in Security, Law, Quantum Computing, and More

2021 Data/AI Salary Survey

September 15, 2021

September 1, 2021

Trends in AI, robotics, social media, and more

Defending against ransomware is all about the basics

August 10, 2021

Authentication, Backups, Updates, and Least Privilege

August 2, 2021

Trends in Programming, Robotics, Security, and More

Thinking About Glue

July 13, 2021

The code that holds our systems together

July 6, 2021

Trends in AI, Ethics, Security, and More

Code as Infrastructure

June 8, 2021

The Next Critical Talent Shortage Won’t Be Fortran

June 1, 2021

Trends in AI, Security, Programming, and More

DeepCheapFakes

May 11, 2021

What happens when deepfakes become cheap?

May 3, 2021

Trends in AI, Security, Finance, and More

AI Adoption in the Enterprise 2021

April 19, 2021

NFTs: Owning Digital Art

April 6, 2021

Conspicuous consumption for the online world

April 1, 2021

Trends in AI, Social Media, Augmented Reality, and More

The Next Generation of AI

March 9, 2021

Is a new generation of AI systems arising from cross-fertilization between different AI disciplines?

March 1, 2021

Trends in AI, Ecology, Finance, and More

Product Management for AI

February 26, 2021

The Wrong Question

February 9, 2021

What questions should we be asking about the future of social media? “Free Speech” isn’t it.

February 1, 2021

Trends in AI, Programming, Quantum Computing, and More

Where Programming, Ops, AI, and the Cloud are Headed in 2021

January 25, 2021

Following O'Reilly online learning trends to see what's coming next.

Patterns

January 12, 2021

Patterns give you a language for discussing solutions to problems.

January 5, 2021

Trends in AI, Security, Biology, and More

What is functional programming?

December 8, 2020

Be as functional as you want to be

December 1, 2020

Trends in AI, Robotics, Infrastructure, and more.

Multi-Paradigm Languages

November 10, 2020

We need to learn how to effectively use multi-paradigm languages that support functional, object oriented, and procedural paradigms.

November 2, 2020

Trends in AI, Programming, Security, and more.

AI Product Management After Deployment

October 13, 2020

The AI product manager’s job isn’t over when the product is released. PMs need to remain engaged after deployment.

AI and Creativity

October 6, 2020

Creativity means making something new, not copying what exists already.

October 1, 2020

Pair Programming with AI

September 8, 2020

September 1, 2020

Trends in AI, COVID-19, Programming, and more.

An Agent of Change

August 25, 2020

A look into the Covid-19 pandemic's influence on how we think, spend, and manage our businesses.

The Least Liked Programming Languages

August 11, 2020

What are some of the least liked/most dreaded programming languages? Why are they dreaded, and are they being evaluated fairly?

August 3, 2020

Trends in COVID-19, AI, data, robotics, programming, VR, technology and society, and security.

Bringing an AI Product to Market

July 28, 2020

Previous articles have gone through the basics of AI product management. Here we get to the meat: how do you bring a product to market?

Power, Harms, and Data

Data is often biased. But that isn’t the real issue. Why is it biased? How do we build teams that are sensitive to that bias?

AI, Protests, and Justice

July 21, 2020

Microservices Adoption in 2020

July 15, 2020

Everyone’s talking about microservices. Who’s actually doing it?

Automated Coding and the Future of Programming

July 9, 2020

How automation is likely to change professional software development.

July 1, 2020

Trends in disruptions in COVID-19 and #BlackLivesMatter, AI, programming, social media, and cloud.

COVID-19 and Complex Systems

June 24, 2020

Machine Learning and the Production Gap

June 9, 2020

June 8, 2020

Trends in COVID-19, programming, machine learning & AI, payment systems, and networks.

The Business of Open Source

June 3, 2020

How do you build a business around open source when you’re competing with AWS and the like? Chef’s answer: double down on Open Source.

Practical Skills for The AI Product Manager

May 14, 2020

When models are everywhere

May 11, 2020

May 7, 2020

Trends in technology and Coronavirus, robotics, AI, programming, and the New Workplace.

On COBOL

May 4, 2020

Every time the cry for COBOL programmers has gone up, we’ve muddled through; this time, we should do something better.

How data privacy leader Apple found itself in a data ethics catastrophe

April 22, 2020

Companies that succeed will protect, fight for, and empower their users

April 13, 2020

Coronavirus, real time transcription, quantum computing, and regulating cryptography.

Governance and Discovery

April 6, 2020

What you need to know about product management for AI

March 31, 2020

A product manager for AI does everything a traditional PM does, and much more.

March 5, 2020

Disposable bluetooth stickers, Coronavirus impact, smart farming, and cybersecurity.

The death of Agile?

March 2, 2020

In this edition of the Radar column, we examine the big picture around Agile, and look at what it means and what it doesn't.

February 6, 2020

News from CES, developments in automation, cloud computing, and trends from China.

AI meets operations

February 3, 2020

In this edition of the Radar column, we explore questions and challenges facing ops teams as they attempt to assimilate AI.

January 9, 2020

We note three big things that will shape technology in 2020, and we’re tracking notable developments in open standards and security.

Rethinking programming

January 6, 2020

In this edition of the Radar column, we look at how the tools and techniques of programming are poised to evolve.

The road to Software 2.0

December 10, 2019

It’s clear that AI can and will have a big influence on how we develop software.

December 5, 2019

We’re tracking notable developments in privacy, security, health, and more.

A 5G future

December 2, 2019

In this edition of the Radar column, we explore the limitations and possibilities of high-speed 5G connectivity.

A world of deepfakes

November 7, 2019

We need to remember that creating fakes is an application, not a tool—and that malicious applications are not the whole story.

We’re tracking notable developments in 5G, devices, augmented reality, blockchain, and more.

Quantum computing’s potential is still far off, but quantum supremacy shows we’re on the right track

November 1, 2019

In this edition of the Radar column, we explore Google’s quantum supremacy milestone.

Defusing propaganda feedback loops on the social web

October 30, 2019

The struggle is not about free speech; it's about the right to pay attention and to think.

October 7, 2019

We’re tracking notable developments in open source activism, quantum computing, AR/VR, and more.

TinyML: The challenges and opportunities of low-power ML applications

October 1, 2019

In this edition of the Radar column, we look at what’s possible when ML apps can work with minimal or inconsistent power supplies.

September 13, 2019

We’re tracking notable developments in the democratization of AI, open source supply chain attacks, brain-computer interfaces, and more.

How new tools in data and AI are being used in health care and medicine

September 3, 2019

An overview of applications of new tools for overcoming silos, and for creating and sharing high-quality data.

Machine learning requires a fundamentally different deployment approach

As organizations embrace machine learning, the need for new deployment tools and strategies grows.

Learning from adversaries

July 31, 2019

Adversarial images aren’t a problem—they’re an opportunity to explore new ways of interacting with AI.

The circle of fairness

July 9, 2019

We shouldn't ask our AI tools to be fair; instead, we should ask them to be less unfair and be willing to iterate until we see improvement.

Maximizing paper clips

June 10, 2019

We won’t get the chance to worry about artificial general intelligence if we don’t deal with the problems we have in the present.

How AI and machine learning are improving customer experience

May 14, 2019

From data quality to personalization, to customer acquisition and retention, and beyond, AI and ML will shape the customer experience of the future.

Toward the next generation of programming tools

May 13, 2019

Programmers have built great tools for others. It’s time they built some for themselves.

Looking Back on the O’Reilly Artificial Intelligence Conference

April 30, 2019

More than anything else, O'Reilly's AI Conference was about making the leap to AI 2.0.

Automating ethics

April 22, 2019

Machines will need to make ethical decisions, and we will be responsible for those decisions.

Strata San Francisco, 2019: Opportunities and Risks

April 12, 2019

Balancing risk and reward is a necessary tension we'll need to understand as we continue our journey into the age of data.

De-biasing language

April 2, 2019

The toughest bias problems are often the ones you only think you’ve solved.

Changing contexts and intents

March 13, 2019

The internet itself is a changing context—we’re right to worry about data flows, but we also have to worry about the context changing even when data doesn’t flow.

Future of the firm

March 12, 2019

Mapping the complex forces that are reshaping organizations and changing the employee/employer relationship.

What is O’Reilly Radar?

Radar spots and explores emerging technology themes so organizations can succeed amid constant change.

Reinforcement learning for the birds

February 4, 2019

Much like human speech, bird song learning is social; perhaps we'll discover machine learning is social, too.

January 28, 2019

Consent is the first step toward the ethical use of data, but it's not the last.

What we learn from AI’s biases

October 9, 2018

Our bad AI could be the best tool we have for understanding how to be better people.

The ethics of data flow

September 11, 2018

If we’re going to think about the ethics of data and how it’s used, then we have to take into account how data flows.

A quick reminder on HTTPS everywhere

August 14, 2018

HTTPS "everywhere" means everywhere—not just the login page, or the page where you accept donations. Everything.

Why we need to think differently about AI

August 8, 2018

General intelligence or creativity can only be properly imagined if we peel away the layers of abstractions.

Data’s day of reckoning

July 31, 2018

We can build a future we want to live in, or we can build a nightmare. The choice is up to us.

The five Cs

July 24, 2018

Five framing guidelines to help you think about building data products.

Of oaths and checklists

July 17, 2018

Oaths have their value, but checklists will help put principles into practice.

What machine learning means for software development

July 11, 2018

“Human in the loop” software development will be a big part of the future.

Doing good data science

July 10, 2018

Data scientists, data engineers, AI and ML developers, and other data professionals need to live ethical values, not just talk about them.

AI’s desire

June 26, 2018

It’s easy to imagine an AI winning a game of Go, but can you imagine an AI wanting to play a game of Go?

Don’t let your ethical judgement go to sleep

June 20, 2018

We need to build organizations that are self-critical and avoid corporate self-deception.

Steering around blockchain hype

May 31, 2018

When we finally find the best use cases for blockchains, they may look like nothing we would have expected.

7 questions to ask before you launch an enterprise blockchain project

May 24, 2018

Successful projects will think seriously about what blockchains mean, and how to use them effectively.

Content

Specialized tools for machine learning development and model governance are becoming essential

April 2, 2019

Why companies are turning to specialized machine learning tools like MLflow.

You created a machine learning application. Now make sure it’s secure.

February 28, 2019

The software industry has demonstrated, all too clearly, what happens when you don’t pay attention to security.

Deep automation in machine learning

December 19, 2018

We need to do more than automate model building with autoML; we need to automate tasks at every stage of the data pipeline.

Case studies in data ethics

August 7, 2018

These studies provide a foundation for discussing ethical issues so we can better integrate data ethics in real life.

Building tools for the AI applications of tomorrow

April 26, 2018

We’re currently laying the foundation for future generations of AI applications, but we aren’t there yet.

Getting the most from the AI Business Summit

March 13, 2018

The AI Conference in NY will feature tutorials, conference sessions, and executive briefings to help business leaders understand and plan for AI technologies.

Join the battle for the internet

July 12, 2017

It's time to rally in defense of the internet again.

Where programming meets the real world

October 21, 2016

Greg Brown's new book, Programming Beyond Practices, is a thoughtful exploration of how software gets developed.

How do you learn?

September 19, 2016

Shared learning: It's what we do at O'Reilly, and it's what we’d like to share with you.

Cultivate in Portland: Leadership, values, diversity

August 16, 2015

Building the next generation of leaders, for any size organization.

To suit or not to suit?

July 8, 2015

At Cultivate, we'll address the issues really facing management: how to deal with human problems.

BioBuilder: Rethinking the biological sciences as engineering disciplines

June 28, 2015

Moving biology out of the lab will enable new startups, new business models, and entirely new economies.

Cultivating change

May 20, 2015

Cultivate is O'Reilly's conference committed to training the people who will lead successful teams, now and in the future.

Announcing BioCoder issue 6

January 14, 2015

BioCoder 6: iGEM's first Giant Jamboree, an update from the #ScienceHack Hack-a-thon, the Open qPCR project, and more.